Cheat Sheet

Nikon D3400 For Dummies Cheat Sheet

With the D3400 camera, Nikon proves once again that you don’t have to give an arm and a leg — or strain your back and neck — to enjoy dSLR photography. The D3400 doesn’t skimp on power or performance, offering a great set of features to help you take your photography to the next level. But for novices, the camera also offers plenty of easy-to-use, automated modes. To help you get started using your camera, here’s a handy reference to your camera’s buttons, dials, and exposure modes.

Controls on Your Nikon D3400 Camera

If you’re not familiar with the Nikon D3400 camera, here’s a quick guide to its buttons, dials, and other external controls. The lens shown here is the 18-55mm AF-P kit lens; other lenses may have different features.

Automatic Exposure Modes on Your Nikon D3400

For photography novices, the D3400 offers automatic settings that enable point-and-shoot simplicity. The settings listed here help you capture the most common types of subjects; just set the Mode dial to the icon shown in the table. For automatic photography and movie recording using special effects, set the dial to Effects and rotate the Command dial to select an effect.

Advanced Exposure Modes for Your Nikon D3400

To really take creative control, step up to one of these four exposure modes, which enable you to adjust aperture (f-stop) to manipulate depth of field (the zone of sharp focus) and adjust shutter speed to determine whether moving objects appear sharply focused or blurry. You also gain access to some features not available in the fully automatic modes.